Original Xbox is still good for something: smuggling drugs

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Eventually, old game consoles lose their luster — even though we’re currently living in the age of retro pixelated nostalgia. If you’ve been gaming for a while and don’t like to sell your memories back to GameStop, you likely have a closet (or two) full of old consoles and games, acting as both a scrapbook of your past and a pile of junk that becomes a burden during spring cleaning. Rather than just leave old game consoles stacked atop one another in a closet, four men from Berks County, Pennsylvania found a use for them: smuggling cocaine.

The original Xbox is almost as gigantic as the Xbox One, which means it not only takes up precious closet room, but can utilize its cavernous insides to hide a decent-sized chunk of something — in this instance, cocaine. Officials with the Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and the Border Protection Office of Philadelphia alerted the Berks County Drug Task Force to kilos of cocaine being smuggled in from the Dominican Republic. Reportedly, an Xbox was sent to a home that contained around $100,000 worth of cocaine within, roughly 1,100 grams.

Officials watched a suspect receive an Xbox, then tailed him as he dropped it off in the trunk of a car. They followed the car to a home, where they found the 1,100 or so grams of cocaine, an Xbox console, disassembled consoles and various console parts, counter-surveillance cameras, ammo and a loaded gun magazine, over fourteen cellphones, and various items related to cocaine cutting and packaging.

The suspects were arraigned at Berks County Sheriffs Department, but their transportation method remains intriguing. We’re waiting for one of the drug-carrying consoles to be accidentally traded into GameStop then sold to a kid looking for some Halo nostalgia.